This is not for the squeamish ...
It happened in the South African football league.
Oupa Ngulube had his leg broken by Felix Muamba-Musasa during a South African league match between Mpumalanga Black Aces FC and the Carara Kicks.

The two players were going for a ball along the sideline, but Muamba went in high, stomping on Ngulube's leg as he slid in.

Despite a composed 1-0 win for the LA Galaxy at home to the New England Revolution this weekend, soccer fans around the world (or at least in the US) are still in shock over the rift between two Galaxy stars who missed this weekend's game. While superstar David Beckham is yet to return to the Galaxy this season, his estranged teammate Landon Donovan was rested following a busy period representing his country.

Fans of Chelsea and Liverpool would have been scowering through the 2009/2010 fixtures list in mid-July, with the aim of pinpointing arguably their biggest games of the season. This contest certainly falls into that category. In years gone by, matches between Chelsea and Liverpool have been displays of technical class, wonderful ability, and plenty of goals.

Manchester United may have hit the headlines for all the right reasons today, and Cristiano Ronaldo's freekick certainly impressed the United faithful. What was far less impressive was the manner in which Cristiano Ronaldo left the sacred Old Trafford pitch in the 60th minute.

With the game all wrapped up and a midweek fixture against Wigan forthcoming, Sir Alex Ferguson elected to rest his most prized asset.

Hi guys, I am alive. After walking 32 km with a backpack of 10kilos, I am back hooking up from a online connection in the Northof Spain. My attempt was a fail, as the objective was 75 km, butas always the experience was much greater than the aim & the new friends were the real prize. I am recovering now from feetblisters, leg muscle problems & burnt lips, but here to give theSFS readers a quick

Meet Boomerang FC.
And well done Eddie Senatore and Kristian Collins for doing something that no-one else in Canberra football have been able to do.
Futsal teams under new club Boomerang FC from 12 boys and girls to Premiers will play in NSW Premier Futsal league. The implications for Canberra are awesome if you understand the size of the game in Asia and Worldwide, for now read on.

Real Madrid midfielder Wesley Sneijder, linked with a possible move to Arsenal by a number of gossip columns, told As how he will not leave the Spanish club.

He said:

I have no intention of leaving Real Madrid. Nobody called me to speak about that and what I want to do is stay at Madrid because I battled hard to join this club and being successful in this shirt is my aim.

If you tuned in to last Sunday's Premiership Talk Podcast, you would have heard me discuss the "Right Result table." What is this mythical table, and what exactly does it mean? Let me explain... The guys over at RightResult.net have been "fixing" refereeing errors in the Premier League for some time now.

The press have reported that Danny Simpson, Frazier Campbell and Darron Gibson have all been put on the transfer list, with the aim to raise a bit of cash to put in our transfer kitty. Disappointing, Simpson hasn't even been able to get in the Blackburn side since early March, and whilst Campbell's stint at Tottenham was more successful, it was nothing to write home about.

Now that the Coca Cola Championship has come to a halt (temporarily, at least, with the playoffs still to be played), us Premier League fans have three new teams to look forward to seeing next season. While only Wolves and Birmingham have locked up promotion spots for next season, within the next few weeks we'll know who out of Reading, Burnley, Sheffield United, and Preston North End will be playing top flight footbal come August.

Robin van Persie's contract expires in summer 2011 and the club has been locked in contract negotiations all season. The club appeared to have offered the Dutch striker £75,000 a week, but van Persie is stalling over signing a new contract.

There was talk earlier that he wanted a buyout clause, which was as low as €5 million.

With the arrival of the weekend, football fans across the world are returning to following their respective teams in another series of cracking fixtures. However, excitement is going to reach a whole different level next weekend, when the much awaited FIFA 10 releases in Australia (October 1) and Europe (October 2).

As soon as the referee blew his whistle to bring a toughly contested fixture between Manchester United and Everton to its end at Old Trafford, it became clear that the home side has indeed mastered the technique of winning games with a 1-0 margin this season. Some of their rivals feel that Sir Alex Ferguson's men have been lucky to escape with multiple 1-0 wins this season and many have accused United of appearing "lost" on their way to yet another successful season.

As soon as Emmanuel Adebayor started limping off the field in the 38th minute, it was clear that the North London derby between Arsenal and Tottenham would swing into the favor of the hosts at the White Hart Lane. The more important implication of Adebayor's injury, however, was obviously much beyond this afternoon's game.

Chelsea forward Nicolas Anelka has opined that he enjoyed his best spell of football while on loan at Liverpool during the latter part of the 2001-02 campaign.
Ahead of the Blues' Champions League quarter-final clash with the Reds, the French international feels that it is assumed he is an out-and-out striker, but the Merseyside outfit did not make that mistake and duly profited.

A quick thought on the debate that has been rumbling all week, and that is the outrage in the North East that Manchester United are going to field a weakened team against Hull at the KC Stadium on Sunday.

Ok, so it is a big day for the three North East teams involved, not to mention Hull, however I'm not quite sure the threat to sue them is the way to go about preparing your team in the lead up to the most vital 90 minutes of your season.

Here's an analogy for you to mull over:

An entrepreneur comes up with a product. It can be any product: a website, a toaster, a killer mutant robot, you name it, but he designs and develops it. He makes it successful. It's him who brings this product to the attention of the world... and it's a truly great product.

According to Stephen Crawford at Goal.com, UEFA is looking to limit the amount of money spent on transfers by clubs. An official statement in UEFAdirect said,

"The aim is for all clubs to be able to live on the income they generate ... A series of incentives and disciplinary action will be examined at the next executive committee meeting.

One thing is really starting to infuriate me as a watching fan; our persistence with Cesc and Van Persie as our only set piece takers. Do not get me wrong, some things are working fine, confirmed by the goals from Gallas and Vermaelen. However we can still improve.

Sometimes I think the knowledge that he will get go after go means that Robin uses many to get his aim in.

So, is Xavi really liking this book writing business, or what? After recently launching his auto-biography, he is now working on another project... a cookbook.
No, your eyes are fine, you're not in need of a check up, you read correct: Xavito is making a cookbook. It's not something we'd ever have expected, but at the same time, it is kinda cute!

Hamilton and Ireland starlet James McCarthy maintains he is ‘happy' where he is, despite clubs circling around the young midfielder.
Rangers and Celtic have been widely reported to be interested in the 18-year-old, but he is in no hurry to leave the Lanarkshire club.

The Real Madrid rumor mill is in full flight once again, although this time it's a Chelsea player that is at the center of the speculation. Eduardo Garcia, who is running for the Real Madrid presidency, has told the media that he has an agreement in place that will bring the Ivorian striker to Spain if he wins the election.

I am not quite sure how much of an audience an article about the German Bundesliga can get, but I will still give it a shot. After all, if there is one league that has continued to offer an air-tight title race throughout the year, it has to be the German first division. With two games to go, as many as four teams have a realistic chance of being crowned champions.

Derry's Ireland midfielder Darron Gibson was delighted with his match winning performance for Manchester United in their 1-0 victory at Hull City today.
Gibson capped a breakthrough year for the 21-year-old with his glorious strike, which he admitted he would savour as his first in the Premier League.

Blatter defends the obscene amount of money spent on Ronaldo's transfer saying...
"We are in a very sensitive market nowadays, because there is an economic crisis.But in football, if we are in a good market, it means that football is a good product, not just to buy or sell but a product that gives people what they want, which is emotions.

Inter have returned to Japan three years after winning the FIFA World Club Cup with the aim of becoming the first Brazilian club to win the Suruga Bank Championship (Copa Suruga Bank).
Twelve hours ahead of Brazil, the match kicks off local time at 19:00 (07:00 Porto Alegre, 11:00 UK).

This is action from the Russian League, and a game between Tarek Grozny and Dynamo Moscow.
A Moscow player takes aim and and fires toward goal, only for the ball to strike poor Grozny defender, Cleber on the head, and totally floor the Brazilian.
Fortunately, the defender recovered from the blow, to continue the game
source.

In celebration of Asian Referees' Day on September 1, S.League will be issuing special ‘Green Cards' to promote fair play, good manners and safeguarding the environment.

With referees more known for brandishing yellow and red cards for on-field offences, the green card has the opposite effect with the aim of promoting the positive side of football and its related activities.

The always lovely always classy Toni Terry is currently in training to appear in an equestrian event at the end of the year. She plans on making her dressage debut at the Olympia Horse Show in London in December.

She's been training with national champ Vicki Thompson to get her in shape for the event.

A couple of weeks back I took the twelve-year-old neighbor girl (who is herself a goalkeeper) to a match played by my local team. My aim was, of course, to teach her that it's perfectly acceptable for women to be hardcore footy fans. In the process, I may have taught her a few [...]

Lyon's 2-1 Champions League victory at Anfield on Tuesday night sparked mass hysteria amongst the Liverpool faithful. While almost everyone points the finger at the absence of Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres in recent weeks, even more people are blaming manager Rafa Benitez. There is no doubt about it: people are calling for Rafa Benitez's head.

Arsene Wenger has his sights set on Sunderland captain Lorik Cana as he aims to bring some bite to Arsenal's lightweight midfield. Reports from the Sunderland Echo suggest that Arsenal will do their best to sign the Albanian midfielder when the transfer window opens.

Cana is a new signing at the Stadium of Light having joined the Black Cats over the summer.

- According to EMD, ex-Barca striker Samuel Eto'o as given an interview to Canal+ in which he lashes out at some of the figures from his former club. The interview won't come out till next Thursday, but leaked statements suggest that when asked which members of the club he's dissapointed in, Samu's reply was something like "Yes, I think if I'd pick two, I'd probably aim at Pep and Joan, but there are many more people who let me down, many more.

Bill Shankly once said: "Aim for the sky and you'll reach the ceiling. Aim for the ceiling and you'll stay on the floor". Against Fulham on Saturday, Rafa Benitez didn't aim for the sky or the ceiling; he didn't even aim for the floor! With his cautious approach and maddeningly incomprehensible decisions, Benitez went against everything Liverpool FC stands for and committed the ultimate footballing sin: he gave up and conceded defeat.

Despite forcing Barcelona to sweat big time in recent weeks, defending champions Real Madrid fell off the pace in their pursuit for a third successive La Liga title earlier tonight. At their storied Santiago Bernabeu stadium, the Los Blancos came from behind through a Klaas Jan Huntelaar strike but failed to change the 1-1 stalemate against city rivals Atletico Madrid.

Gareth Barry will hold talks about his Aston Villa future with boss Martin O'Neill if the club fails to qualify for the Champions League.
The Villa captain was keen to move to Liverpool last summer to fulfill his European ambition but O'Neill refused to sell the midfielder.
Barry hinted he would stay at the club beyond this summer if Villa qualified for the Champions League but a poor run of form has seen them surrender fourth-place to Arsenal.

Ten things I noticed from this week's Champions League semifinals:

1. The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth

Results lie. Sometimes. If not, then in the last 5 years I've been privileged enough to watch the great Greek team of 2004 justly claim their prize as the greatest international team in Europe.

It seems very weird that Stevenage are playing in a FA Trophy Final tomorrow afternoon. Somehow there is not the same buzz there was 2 years ago when Mark Stimson's side played Kidderminster Harriers in the first competitive final at the new Wembley Stadium. I don't know whether it is the fact that the stadium has lost its new 'magic' or that the main aim of the club this season has been promotion from the Blue Square Premier.

In their 4-2-3-1 system City needed to move the ball forward quickly, get strong support out wide from full-back and flood the grass around the lone striker when the ball entered the box. But they never tested United, who passed the ball better, used the width well and had greater work-rate, particularly from Carlos Tevez, Park Ji-sung and Darren Fletcher.

Tuesday May 26th

11am – After failing in my quest to get a good night's rest the night before, I spent the morning zombified thanks mainly to the hypnotic waffling of Paddy Crerand on MUTV. After a wash and an egg (though maybe not in that order) I got in the cab and headed for Heathrow Terminal 5.